


Curiosity

by Brillador



Series: Our Fine Town (Next Generation) [5]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Future, Family, Friendship, Gen, Next Generation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-11
Updated: 2017-02-11
Packaged: 2018-09-23 10:37:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9652184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brillador/pseuds/Brillador
Summary: What's a little snooping amongst family? Téa only wants a glimpse behind the veil of mystery that surrounds her father's shop, and the man himself. Three attempts, one unforeseen consequence.





	

The first time Téa went snooping in the pawnshop’s back room, Pop found her and asked what she was looking for. She hadn’t been looking for anything, but she thought if she said a specific item, he’d let her see something interesting.

“Your most secrety secret,” her six-year-old mouth blurted out.

A playful smirk filled her father’s face. “How about some ice cream instead?”

It was a suitable offer. She abandoned the room for the promise of creamy sweets.

The next time, she was old enough and smart enough not to be tempted by food. Since she could access the shop only when her father was working, she chose her moment when Mr. Nolan came in to discuss some serious matter. Pop handed her his ledger to check his calculations while the grown-ups talked. She gladly stepped into the back room with the book, only to set it down on the table while she quickly inspected the shelves. It took only a few minutes for her to learn that most of the shelves were filled with boring junk. Some old mechanical items gave her pause, but in terms of magic, the cabinet in the back drew her like a magnet. It was, of course, locked. She touched the keyhole and wondered if there was a spell to bust it open. Or she could rattle the mechanism, if she could just focus her energy on this little spot—

“Téa. What are you doing?” Pop rarely yelled, but he could speak with enough force to make her jump.

He explained that there was some dangerous stuff in that cabinet. Stuff that only grown-ups could handle. Téa frowned and crossed her arms. Pop conceded by saying that on her fourteenth birthday, if she proved herself a responsible witch throughout her magic lessons, he’d give her something from the cabinet as a present.

The third time she snooped around was the boldest attempt so far, a week before her fourteenth birthday. She wasn’t alone.

“This stuff gives me the creeps,” Scarlet Mills whispered while staring at the packed shelves. “Did your dad ever kill a guy in here?”

“No, but thank you for that mental image,” Téa replied while prying the lock on the cabinet with a hairpin. “Shh, I need to focus.”

“Maybe you should’ve brought real lock-picking tools,” Neal Nolan said. He looked even less comfortable sharing intimate space with the collectibles of the Dark One. He wasn’t ignorant to the stories of the man’s deals, the ways he frightened and tricked people in the past. He didn’t seem that kind of man now—not in the tricking sense. Mr. Gold was intimidating enough with his suits and mindful stares. Neal couldn’t imagine facing the guy when he was, according to Emma, “a lizard man dressed like Mick Jagger.”

Both teen girls looked at Neal. Scarlet appeared appalled and impressed. “Did Neal Nolan just encourage larceny?”

“It’s not larceny if it’s her father’s place!” He gulped. “Right?”

“He won’t throw me in jail, if that’s what you’re worried about,” Téa said. She jiggled the lock while placing her ear as close to it as possible.

“I don’t imagine he’ll extend the same courtesy to us,” Scarlet said, eyebrow arched. She didn’t sound overly worried.

Téa smiled. “I’ll make this fast.”

Indeed, in half a minute, the lock burst open with a hiss and a few sparks. Neal jumped, then sighed, glad to see this break-in didn’t require gratuitous property damage. Scarlet’s eyes kindled with excitement.

With a triumphant grin, Téa tossed open the cabinet doors. Her grin dropped. There was nothing inside. Nothing except one amorphous, vaguely humanoid figurine on the bottom shelf. The rest of the cabinet yawned at them, mockingly.

Scarlet scoffed. “Did . . . did he rig this?”

Téa’s shoulders slumped. “He must have.” Her curious hand picked up the little statue.

“Whoa!” Neal lurched forward. He utterly failed to stop Téa. “What if it’s a trap?”

A pensive frown fastened on Téa’s tense lips as she turned the figurine over. The creature lacked a neck. Its poor excuse for a head was a bump in its massive shoulders. The thick physique was featureless except for strips of metal that seemed to hold its chest, waist and legs together. The only facial markers, two red gems for eyes, rested deep in the lumpy skull.

Scarlet leaned in as well. “Those look like symbols.” She aimed a fingernail doused in dark green polish at the figurine’s forehead.

Téa walked over to her father’s work table and placed the figure under the mounted magnifying glass. The symbols Scarlet noticed tripled in size. Téa gasped. “I know these!”

“Of course you do,” Scarlet said. “What do they say?”

Téa studied them another few seconds. The second gasp that left her made Scarlet and Neal start. They worried she’d come upon a horrible revelation. To the contrary, Téa turned to them with an astounded, open smile. “I know what it is! It’s a golem!”

“Gollum?” Neal said. “That doesn’t look like Gollum. Not from the movies, at least.”

“Not _Gollum_ ,” Téa said. “A golem. It’s a man-made creature from Jewish folklore. Those letters are from the Hebrew alphabet.”

“And?” Scarlet said, her impatience brimming. “What do they say?”

“The Hebrew word for ‘truth’, _emet_.”

An orange-red glow emanated from the small statue. The air around it warmed, and a vibration that pressed on the kids’ ears forced them to scurry backward and cover their ears in discomfort. Air started rushing around them. It was as if someone had turned on a vacuum cleaner. They could feel the wind pulling away from the them toward the table, and the little repair tools left on top rolled around in a circling cyclone. The statue glowed brighter and brighter. At the same time, it grew.

“Shit!” Téa yelled over the turbulence.

“Make it stop!” Neal shouted.

“I can’t!”

Scarlet held up a hand and summoned a fireball. The swirling air destabilized it so that the flame couldn’t hold its spherical shape. It flared away from Scarlet’s hand. She countered by closing her fingers and snuffing the fire.

The statue continued expanding, the inverse of a Shrinky Dink, to beyond human size. The growth didn’t stop when the figurine began moving. Its first action was to sit up and dangle its thick legs over the edge of the table. The growth spurt didn’t stop when the wide, flat feet touched the floor. Only when the shallow dome of a head threatened to hit the ceiling did its increasing girth slow and finally cease. The air stilled at the same time. Most of the clay figure stopped glowing, too, aside from the eyes. Luminous both literally and with a glint of intelligence, they whirled toward the trio of intruders.

The wind gone, Scarlet could reignite her fireball.

“I don’t think fire will do much,” Téa said, trying to sound more pragmatic than frightened.

Neal scoured the room in a hasty glance. His hand dove for the shelf behind him and laid claim to a tennis racket.

“Oh, perfect.” Téa side-eyed him. “I’m sure he’ll submit after you’ve challenged him to a match.”

“Shut up,” Neal hissed.

Scarlet ignored them. She held her aggressive stare and stance just as her mother and aunt had taught her. “Don’t move!” she shouted at the golem.

The golem didn’t make a sound. Its gemstone gaze yielded not one flicker of emotion. It lifted a heavy foot, moved it forward, and dropped it.

The floor trembled. The kids wobbled. Scarlet managed to stay balanced. Neal had to grip the shelf behind him while Téa gripped Scarlet’s shoulder.

“We said don’t move!” Téa barked.

The golem was beginning to take another step toward them. As soon as Téa finished her sentence, it paused mid-movement. It had no trouble holding the awkward pose.

The teens checked each other’s surprised expressions. Scarlet, once satisfied that the monster wouldn’t advance further, extinguished the fireball. Neal lowered the racket but held it tightly. Téa regarded them, then the golem, then inhaled and squared her shoulders and walked up to the creature.

“Are you crazy?” Neal whispered.

“If it moves, I can cast a stasis spell on it,” Scarlet assured her.

“It’s all right,” Téa said. She inched closer. Even though most of the golem remained still, she noticed that its eyes followed her. It wasn’t frozen; it had _decided_ to halt. Téa paused a couple feet from it.

“Um . . . at ease.”

The golem set its foot on the floor. Its trunk-like arms hung relaxed at its sides.

Scarlet’s mouth dropped open. Neal’s jaw was already hanging. Somehow, he was the first to speak. “It listens to you.”

“Well, it _is_ a golem.” Téa tilted her head to the right. The golem leaned its bump of a head in the same direction.

“Téa, I don’t know what a golem is!”

“I don’t know why your father has a golem in his cabinet,” Scarlet said. “Or why it’s the _only_ thing we could find.”

Téa leveled her head. So did the golem. They stared at each other in contemplative silence. Then she tuned to her friends. “I once asked my pop what his biggest secret was. I doubt this is it, but I suppose of all the secrets he has, this is the one he was willing to let me find.”

“That doesn’t explain why it obeys you,” Neal pressed.

“According to legend, the first golem was made by a rabbi versed in mysticism. He made the golem from clay, endowed it with life with spells, and used it as a guardian of his people in a time of great need. The golem obeys its owner.”

“Well, you didn’t make the golem,” Scarlet said, “so maybe it’s bound with blood magic. Anyone in your family can command it.”

“Maybe.” Téa’s lips turned up, intrigued yet cautious. She returned her attention to the golem. “Do you have a name?”

As though it took great effort, the golem slowly turned its neckless head side to side.

“Do you know who I am?”

This time, its head barely tilted forward in a nod.

“Do you know who my father is?”

Another shallow nod.

“Why did my father let me find you?”

For several seconds, the golem didn’t move.

Neal, emboldened by the creature’s docile behavior, came up beside Téa. “I think you broke it.”

“Just give him a minute,” she whispered.

Perhaps her show of patience encouraged the golem, or it simply had worked out a way to answer her question. It knelt on the ground. Its rocky finger started scraping into the wood. Téa winced. Her father probably didn’t have engravings in his shop floor on his mind when he planned this. The golem’s message took time to print thanks to some small dots that were part of the symbols it was carving. At last, its huge hand retreated. Téa moved next to the golem and knelt in front the symbols. They read: הוּלֶדֶת

Téa balked, then laughed. “I can’t believe it!”

Scarlet and Neal crouched next to her. They watched and waiting for an explanation.

Téa shook her head while holding in another laugh. She pointed at the Hebrew word. “Birthday.”

Scarlet’s eyes darted between her friend and the inscription, almost waiting for a psych-out that was never to come. “Are you kidding me? Your father gave you a golem as an _early birthday present?_ ”

“Just a week early,” Téa said.

“As opposed to a month early if you’d tried getting into his cabinet sooner.”

“Hang on,” Neal chimed in. He got up and faced the golem, well within the clay creature’s reach but also positioned for an easy exit. Neal didn’t fully relax, but he rested his hands on his hips and occasionally surveyed the sentinel. “The shop just finished undergoing renovations. Work started a few months back. Could he have planned it around your birthday, suspecting that you’d try to get into the cabinet as soon as everything was done?”

Téa decided not to mention that, almost a month ago, her father had jokingly remarked that while the renovations had caused some inconvenience, at least Téa had been denied the freedom to poke around for his secrets. Granted, she’d not searched his shop for a few years. Pop was extra vigilant whenever she visited or helped with bookkeeping. Today, however, he and Mom had popped over to the cabin for an impromptu date and weren’t expected back until this evening. Téa hadn’t understood her father’s sudden suggestion of a romantic getaway. Their anniversary was two months ago, accompanied by the typical mushy gestures. So, what gave? Surely Pop didn’t _intentionally_ leave a window for her to infiltrate the shop.

Or maybe he was just that brilliant. Or he knew her so painfully well.

Before Téa was at all prepared to answer Neal, the golem raised its hand toward the cabinet. Its finger sluggishly uncurled and directed their attention to the somehow shut doors. Téa bounced up, easily unfolding her gangly legs. She stuck the landing in front of the cabinet with a small wobble, which earned a snicker from Scarlet. The doors opened again. This time, a scroll rested where the miniature golem had been. Téa unrolled it. Its message filled her with warmth and a bubble of laughter.

_To my dearest girl:_

_May your inquisitive spirit help you find treasures, and may your caring heart keep them well, including this fellow who needed a proper owner._

_All my love,_

_Pop_

_P.S. Don’t break into my cabinet ever again. xo_

**Author's Note:**

> I meant to post this last week, but time was needed to play catch up on fics in general. More of this verse will be coming, particularly a "prequel" of sorts focusing on Rumbelle, so stay tuned! Also, apologies if I got the Hebrew text wrong. Let me know if it is and I'll correct it.


End file.
